PathWays PA E-Newsletter: February 8, 2010

As the Pennsylvania State Budget process kicks off this week, be sure to keep an eye out for PathWays PA’s weekly Budget Alerts.

PathWays PA Publications Survey

In order to enhance our work we have put together a short survey for individuals who have received any of PathWays PA’s publications. Your response would be greatly appreciated! Please click here to be taken to the short survey.

If you are interested in learning more about PathWays PA’s publications, you can access them online by clicking here.

Free Tax Preparation from PathWays PA

PathWays PA’s basic tax preparation service is designed to provide free tax filing for households whose income does not exceed $50,000. We can also assist tax filers who are disabled or who do not speak English as their first language.

If you or someone you know would like to have taxes prepared by the Self Sufficiency team, please call the numbers below to schedule an appointment.Philadelphia

Please feel free to refer your eligible friends and family to our services!

State

Watch Governor Rendell’s Budget Address

Governor Rendell will be giving his budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly starting at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, February 9.

According to the Governor, his budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year is focused on bolstering Pennsylvania’s economic recovery, creating jobs, keeping taxes under control, continuing our investments in schools, and ensuring essential services are provided to older adults and Pennsylvanians in need.

You can view the budget address online at www.pa.gov or by watching coverage on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.

A $29 billion spending plan, an increase of $1.2 billion, or 4 percent

Another hefty increase for public schools

New taxes on the extraction of natural gas and sales of cigars and smokeless tobacco

More Funding for Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program

It was announced on Thursday that low-income families facing a heating emergency or utility service termination may start to see some additional relief thanks a recent increase in federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds.

Pennsylvania LIHEAP helps low income people pay their heating bills through home heating energy assistance grants and crisis grants. A family of four with an annual income of up to $33,075 can qualify for assistance, and no lien is placed on the family’s property if assistance is granted. Last year, a family of four could have a maximum income of $44,443.

There will be an additional $26 million in federal contingency funds which will make many families eligible to receive additional crisis grant funds to supplement their original grant, up to a maximum of $400. Crisis grants are approved for families with heating emergencies such as fuel shortages or utility terminations. While additional funding to families is important, there are still a large number of families that do not qualify for LIHEAP these year but are still struggling or unable to heat their homes.

Information/Events

Campus Philly: Online Internship Fair

Campus Philly’s career matching website will be the center of online talent recruitment for the Philadelphia region during its fourth Online Internship Fair. From March 15th-26th, the nonprofit invites area employers to recruit student talent for internship opportunities on CampusPhilly.org/careers, free of charge.

As a new element to the fair, Campus Philly will post a video panel of local experts answering students’ job and internship questions as well as online workshops to build resume writing and interviewing skills.

Internship programs are an effective way to increase a company’s workforce without the cost of a full-time hire. While students gain the competitive edge of real-world experience, host companies can increase work-flow efficiency at minimal or no cost. What’s more, internship programs create an internal talent pipeline for employers interested in future recruiting. Over 200 employers are expected to offer internships in this year’s fair with over 1000 students participating. Employers can register for free at www.campusphilly.org/careers. The online fair will go live at Noon, Monday, March 15th.

Reauthorization of Child Nutrition Act Conference Call

Please join Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J Vilsack on Wednesday, February 10, for a call about the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act. Further details on the specific time will be forthcoming to registered participants.

This conference call with the Secretary is an opportunity to discuss the Obama Administration's priorities for Child Nutrition Reauthorization in greater depth. The call will also include an update on the First Lady's Childhood Obesity initiative, which was highlighted in the President's State of the Union address. Finally, this call will be an opportunity for the Secretary to answer your questions and explore how your organizations can best amplify the President and the First Lady's efforts to provide access to healthy food for all American children.

The Obama Administration is committed to making sure every child in America has the To receive final time details for the conference call, please register by clicking here.

To participate in the conference call, please dial 1-800-369-1790 and provide the participant pass code 3769722.

Community Forum for the Next Governor

With the Governor's primary right around the corner, it is important for us to know where the candidates stand on the issues that matter most to us - education, housing, public benefits, job development, health care, prison reentry programs, and much more. Join a broad coalition of community-based organizations, unions and advocacy projects for this important educational forum where our social and economic needs set the agenda.

WHEN: Thursday, February 18th at 7pmWHERE: Arch St. United Methodist Church, 55 North Broad Street (at the corner of Broad and Arch Streets)

We ask the questions; the candidates tell us where they stand! For more information, call (215) 568-4990.

Connect 2-1-1

CONNECT211.org is a new web site that has information on health and human service agencies in southeast Pennsylvania where individuals can retrieve the information on services around health, jobs, school, and family. The website contains a large database of health and human services in the five county Philadelphia region – Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties.

Additionally users of connect can conduct proximity searches and see their results on a graphical map and obtain accurate driving, transit and walking directions. Services that can be searched for on the website include:

Children, Youth and Families

Disaster Services

Employment Services

Food Services

Housing Services

Substance Abuse Services

Volunteer Opportunities

Disability Services

Education Services

Financial Services

Health Services

Legal Services

Transportation Services

Other General Services

PathWays PA Information and Initiatives

Change a Life: Become a Mentor to Foster Youth

The Achieving Independence Center (AIC) wants caring and supportive adults willing to build a friendship with a foster care youth. You can be that big brother or sister a youth in foster care needs by sharing your life experiences, time, and friendship. Having a shoulder to lean on when times get tough helps young people stay focused and not lose hope.

Whether it is providing them with caring support, friendship, or helping them with their aspirations (personal and professional), the AIC Mentoring Program can match you with a young person between the ages of 16-21 who could benefit from your knowledge and experience.

The AIC is a “one-stop” center designed to assist young people ages 16-21 achieve their future goals of self-sufficiency. The AIC is dedicated to providing support and real life tools for youth who want to make an investment in their future!

Help a youth build their self-esteem and achieve their personal goals. You make a difference by simply getting involved.

For additional information please call 215-574-9194.

Take Action on Earned Sick Time

48 percent of workers in the United States have no access to earned sick time, which means that if they are sick (or if their family members are sick) they must choose between working sick or losing their pay (or their jobs). If you are one of the 48 percent who have no earned sick time - or one of the 52 percent who do - please take our survey and tell us more!

There are bills at the federal, state, and local level to support earned sick time for everyone - here is what you can do:

Support the Federal Healthy Families Act! Under The Healthy Families Act, workers would have the opportunity to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to 7 days of sick time per year. This time could be used to care for workers or their families, or could be used as "safe days" in cases of domestic violence. Tell your legislators that we need paid sick days now!

Support the paid sick days campaign in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia! Become our friend! Show your support for earned sick time by visiting Facebook. You can support earned sick time in Pennsylvania and in Philadelphia. Support both!

Tell us your story! Are you a parent who lost their job to stay home with a sick child? Are you a business owner who provides/supports paid sick days? Email your story to us at policy@pathwayspa.org.

Call your Representatives! If you live in Philadelphia, call your City Councilperson and urge them to support "Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces," which guarantees earned sick time for all working Philadelphians. Not sure who your City Councilperson is? Click on this link and type in your home address to find out which district you live in: http://www.phila.gov/citycouncil/districtform/districtform.html.

PathWays PA offers Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), a matched savings program that offers financial education while helping you save for school. Through the program, your savings can be matched at a rate of three-to-one. If you save $500, we will give you an additional $1500 to go towards your school expenses.

Applicants must meet program income guidelines, be working (full or part time), and be enrolled or accepted into an accredited institution.

PathWays PA provides assistance to those who need help applying for food stamps or other benefits. For further information, you can contact our office in Philadelphia 215-387-1470 or Delaware County 610-543-5022.

For more information about the services provided by PathWays PA please visit our website.

Pennsylvania and many other states require voter registration before Election Day - in Pennsylvania's case, voters must be registered one month ahead of time. So if you recently moved, just turned 18, haven't voted in a while, or never registered before, the time to sign up is now.

PathWays PA has partnered with Rock the Vote to offer voter registration through this blog! You can fill out the form below to register or to make sure that you are registered.

Please take the time to register, and also consider pledging to vote in support of your economic values at wewontwait2016.org!

From our friends at CLASPRegister now for three national audio conferences on job scheduling!
Job schedules matter in many ways. For all workers, it helps when an employer is responsive to a request for a needed schedule change. And far too many workers have volatile and potentially destabilizing schedules. If you don't know when you are supposed to be at work until the last minute, how do you arrange child care or transportation? If your total hours fluctuate from week to week, how do you budget for rent and food?
To address these issues and emerging policy opportunities, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) is hosting and sponsoring three Job Schedules Matter audio conferences.

The conferences, which are co-sponsored by the Center for Popular Democracy and the National Women's Law Center, will include comments from U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman George Miller on why they introduced the Schedules that Work Act. You'll also hear from workers about th…

The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) will host two public conference calls in October. Information on the calls follows below: Breakfast Matters - Effective Messaging: Getting Positive Press in your Community

Thursday October 11, 3 – 4 pm ET Click here to register.
Learn tips from a national communications firm about how to place your stories with local media and receive positive press coverage for your program.

Click here to register.
Learn how you can connect with a myriad of community partners, from parent groups to corporate volunteer programs, who can offer you and your program their time, energy, and support. Community partners can assist you with meal preparation, programming, outreach to increase your participation, and ultimately to help build up community support and in…